The NAACP announced Saturday that its board of directors passed a resolution endorsing marriage “equality.”

“Civil marriage is a civil right and a matter of civil law,” said NAACP CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous in a prepared statement. “The NAACP’s support for marriage equality is deeply rooted in the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution and equal protection of all people.”

The next paragraph of the NAACP resolution states: “The NAACP Constitution affirmatively states our objective to ensure the ‘political, educational, social and economic equality’ of all people. Therefore, the NAACP has opposed and will continue to oppose any national, state, local policy or legislative initiative that seeks to codify discrimination or hatred into the law or to remove the constitutional rights of LGBT citizens. We support marriage quality consistent with equal protection under the law provided under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Further, we strongly affirm the religious freedoms of all people as protected by the First Amendment.”

King said that in the 21st century, “the anti-traditional marriage community is in league with the anti-life community, and together with the NAACP and other sympathizers, they are seeking a world where homosexual marriage and abortion will supposedly set the captives free.”

Her statement was one of many from leaders of black organizations who reacted in opposition to the NAACP’s statement.

Day Gardner, founder of the National Black Prolife Union, joined her.

“Many black people are realizing just how far off the mark the NAACP is with regard to the real issues and the most important problems facing the black community,” Gardner said. “The NAACP organization was founded by blacks who had an understanding and strong faith in God. They were people – pastors and congregations – who knew that the Bible, which is God’s final word, was indeed very clear on the immorality and wages of homosexuality and abortion.”

Gardner said it’s “appalling that this onetime superhero ‘civil rights’ organization supports the breakdown of traditional marriage and the ruthless killing of our unborn children – as a civil right.”

“In its decision to please the world, the NAACP has turned its back on the things of God, therefore, we must encourage those who know the truth to speak out – to stand firmly on the solid rock – to not look to the right or to the left. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter,’” Gardner said.

Stephen Broden, pastor of Fair Park Bible Fellowship in Dallas, said “the black community is suffering from soaring unemployment, an extraordinarily high rate of abortions, a high school dropout rate among black teenagers that is breathtaking, an exploding rate of single parent households and the decimation of black families – yet, the NAACP is making statements about same sex marriage.”

“The NAACP has proven again to be an irrelevant organization as it relates to issues of survival for the black community,” he said.

Rev. Clenard Childress said the homosexual community “is demanding that their lifestyle be legitimized and viewed by society as a lifestyle that is right.”

“We are subjected to the distasteful alignment of homosexuality with the ‘civil rights movement’ and with the argument that gay rights should be guaranteed under the Constitution,” he said. “These two issues are incompatible.”

Added Elder Levon Yuille of The Bible Church in Ypsilanti, Mich., and founder of the National Black Prolife Congress: “My community seems to have more churches than any other community in America, described as ‘most religious,’ but by their vote support the most anti-Christian agenda in the history of this nation, including the abortion and homosexual agenda.”

Said Johnny Hunter, national director of LEARN, “As a person who values human life, I feel very troubled that the youngest of our communities are not guaranteed the opportunity to have their day in the sun. As I speak to churches [in] over half the states in America and abroad, I have seen people weep as they are confronted with the horrors of this holocaust. Still, the destruction continues.”

She cited the issue of an openly homosexual staffer who worked with Martin Luther King Jr.

“[Bayard] Rustin attempted to convince Uncle M.L. that homosexual rights were equal with civil rights. Uncle M. L. did not agree, and would not attach the homosexual agenda to the 20th century civil rights struggles. So Mr. Rustin resigned. He was a brilliant strategist and was hired by Uncle M. L. not because he was gay, but because he was a capable strategist. He also was not fired; he chose to resign,” she explained.

“As to the relationship between Mrs. Coretta Scott King and the homosexual lobby, Mrs. King was a very compassionate woman. She and I shared conversations regarding misplaced compassion. When her daughter, my cousin Elder Bernice King marched in favor of traditional marriage a few years ago, the homosexual lobby demanded that Mrs. King publicly rebuke her daughter for her stance. Mrs. King did not rebuke her daughter. The issue here is compassion, and how to show compassion in the face of controversy,” she said.

But she admitted struggling with how compassion relates to civil rights.

“Thank goodness my good friend Day Gardner helped me to get back on track quickly,” she said. “How can we show compassion for people who want to legitimize sin? If we love them, shouldn’t we try not to hurt their feelings by pointing out that things like abortion and homosexuality are against the Word of God? No matter how many new Bible translations that people come up with, God’s Word isn’t going to change.

“My answer came not from what would Daddy do, or Uncle M. L. do, or Granddaddy do? The answer will always be ‘what would Jesus do?’ Living on the edge of a 21st century Babylon with the stench of Sodom and Gomorrah stinging our nostrils, we need to know that the question is relevant and the answer is imperative. Not only what would Jesus do, but what did Jesus do when confronted with sinners? Jesus extended compassion in the form of ‘ye shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.’”

She continued: “Right now the anti-procreative marriage community is in league with the anti-life community, and together with the NAACP and other sympathizers, they are seeking a world where homosexual marriage and abortion will supposedly set the captives free. To the contrary, it is the Word of God on these and all human issues that sets people free. As Christians, we must have the compassion of Jesus Christ and tell the truth and shame the devil. We must not allow false compassion to force truth to take a seat on the back of the bus.”